Hey First name, 

 

If you've known me for more than five minutes, you know that pottery is one of my favorite hobbies.

It's messy, it's fun, it's difficult, you get to learn new things and meet cool people... And no matter how long you've been at this, the final product is always a surprise. 

 

To paraphrase one of my teachers: Every step in the process is another chance to muck it up.

At the beginning of this summer's class, I threw a pot I hated. The size, the shape, the texture; they were all wrong. And what would I even use it for?

 

I disliked it more every time I looked at it, and I probably should have squished the clay up to use it for something else.

But I kept that pot anyway because I just wanted to see how it would turn out. If I thought of it as an experiment, at least I'd learn something, right?

Well, we got our finished work back this week and… It's my favorite pot so far this summer.

 

It's symetrical, the glaze was is more colorful than I expected, I got loads of compliments from my classmates…

 

Even my husband, who used to be a ceramics dealer, picked it up and said “that's well thrown,” validation I've waited to hear for years (!)

 

I ended up with this happy accident because, against my better judgement, I ignored an important economic concept called the sunk cost fallacy.

 

The sunk cost fallacy is an argument for the importance of giving up, of cutting your losses. It's that old adage: “Throwing good money after bad” and its implication that, well, you really shouldn't.

 

You've invested your resources--time, money, effort--into something that's clearly not going to work out, and the logical choice would be to abandon it, so you can put those resources towards something… better?

But I'm a bit of a rebel, and sometimes I just want to know how the story will end. To be in it for the experience and the experiment, not just the final result.

 

In a way, I would have loved this pot even if I'd hated it, because it taught me so many things that I will use when I make the next one.

What have you stuck with lately that's surprised you?